There was a time… when I was not a practicing Catholic… when I was ignorant of what it means to be Catholic… when I thought wrongly that I knew all there was to know about Catholicism… when I knew nothing about the beauty and the depth and the riches contained in the faith… there was a time when I actually might’ve applauded Brian Kilmeade’s stupidity heard in the following snippet:
I now of course hear garbage like this and shake my head and marvel at the thought that not long ago, I might’ve said the very same thing had circumstances availed the opportunity.
On the cusp of the Pope’s visit to the United States, it seems that Kilmeade’s Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome is breaking out all over. Scott Eric Alt deals with three particular outbreaks as only he can… here’s but a snippet:
These are political questions, but the notion that there is some corner of life, called the “political,” which need not answer to the moral law, is not Christianity. It is secularism.
The Left wants to call abortion “political” and tell the Church to be quiet about that. The Right wants to call capitalism “political” and tell the Church to be quiet about that.
Pope Francis shouts plenty at both right and left. Some people seem to think he should only be shouting at the left.
Pope Benedict XVI tells us what the moral law is at the back of all this talk about economics. He says it in Caritatis in Veritate 25. “The primary capital,” he says, “to be safeguarded and valued, is man, the human person in his or her integrity.” Politics and economics do not operate apart from the moral law about the dignity of the human person. That’s the point.
…
One wonders what Mr. Kilmeade would have to say about Benedict XVI. Or John Paul II. Or Leo XIII. Or St. James. I’m Catholic, but that St. James guy, he really should have taken on those Roman persecutors first, then talked about a just wage.
But what lies behind Mr. Kilmeade’s comments here is the idea of America’s moral superiority to the rest of the world. “He’s in the wrong country!” Let him talk to Syria or Iran, not us! Hold those other people to the moral law, but not us! We are without spot or blemish!
This tells me that the pope needs to come here. He needs to shake us out of our padded armchairs.
That’s the pope’s job: to make people uncomfortable. To make us all uncomfortable.
Do read the entire piece. Most worthy. And book mark Mr. Alt. He’s actually written a series of posts about PFDS, all of which are great resources to combat the nutters.
As to anti-nutter resources, I would also highly recommend Dave Armstrong’s Helpful Resources for Confused, Troubled, and Frustrated Folks, a handy dandy list of useful links guaranteed to cause mouth frothing and vein popping in the nutter community. Might it all lead to some enlightenment.
Carry on.
Crossposted at Brutally Honest.
